During a meeting with fellow NATO leaders in Brussels on Thursday, President Donald Trump appeared to shove Prime Minister Dusko Markovic* of Montenegro aside in order to position himself front and center for photographers.
WATCH: Pres. Trump places his hand on a fellow NATO leader and moves him aside to return to the front of the group of leaders in Brussels. pic.twitter.com/p2PNAKHwKR
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) May 25, 2017
The gesture was swiftly mocked on social media. Trump’s first visit to the Belgian capital, a city the president previously described as a “hellhole,” was already fraught with anxiety. Trump vowed to pull the United States out of NATO and repeatedly described the group as “obsolete” during the presidential campaign. Although he appeared to reverse course after meeting with the group’s secretary general in April, Trump’s commitment to NATO remained unsure.
Those apprehensions were reaffirmed Thursday: Shortly before appearing to push Markovic, Trump delivered a speech chastising NATO countries for failing to “meet their financial obligations”—a popular refrain from his campaign days. Keep a lookout for the faces of European leaders as Trump lectures them in the clip below:
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the prime minister of Montenegro.
